CAR · TE
Darren Waller
Darren Waller is a tight end for the Carolina Panthers. Depth chart: TE1.
Scouting report
Darren Waller: the full picture
Darren Waller at a glance
Darren Waller is a 34-year-old tight end for the Carolina Panthers, listed at 6'6" and 245 pounds. The Baltimore Ravens drafted Waller 204th overall in the sixth round in 2015, out of Georgia Tech, and 2026 is Waller's 12th NFL season.
2026 projection
The Gridiron Value season model projects Waller for 30.6 PPR points in 2026, which ranks TE52 at the position and works out to 2.3 points per game over 17.0 projected games.
2026 season so far
Through 2 games of 2026, Waller has scored 23.1 PPR points, or 11.6 per game. That is 75.5% of the full-season projection; at the current rate Waller would finish with about 196 points, ahead of the 30.6 projected. It is a small sample, so expect that pace to settle. The best week so far is 18.3 points in Week 2 against ATL, the TE5 finish that week. Waller has cleared the 7-point mark we count as a usable TE start in 1 of 2 games, a 50% consistency rate.
Percentile profile
Measured against the 33 qualified tight ends of 2026, Waller ranks in the 95th percentile in yards per target, the 91st percentile in receiving TDs and the 44th percentile in receiving yards. Two of the 6 tracked categories sit at or above the 75th percentile. The softest mark is the 2nd percentile in target share.
Career track record
By season-long PPR scoring, Waller has finished as TE3 in 2019, TE2 in 2020, TE17 in 2021, TE31 in 2022, TE22 in 2023 and TE33 in 2025. That is two top-five positional finishes in 9 completed seasons. The high-water mark is 278.6 PPR points in 2020. Across 92 regular-season games on record, the totals read 379 receptions, 4,468 receiving yards and 28 receiving touchdowns.
Darren Waller by the numbers
Waller has been the highest-scoring tight end of the week 6 times, finished in the weekly top five at the position 23 times and finished in the top twelve 38 times. The career high is 45.0 PPR points, set in Week 13 of 2020 against NYJ, the top TE score of that week. The game log also shows 3 games of 30 or more PPR points and 12 100-yard receiving games. In all, Waller has reached 20 points in 11 games, 12% of career appearances.
Contract
Waller is playing on a one-year, $1.3 million contract signed with the Carolina Panthers in 2026, an average of $1.3 million per year. The deal runs through the 2026 season.
Dynasty market
In dynasty formats Waller carries a GV stock price of 2,430, which ranks 240th overall and TE41 among tight ends out of 940 priced players. In redraft the same model ranks Waller 111th overall. Value has moved up 5.0 since the previous model run. The closest profiles by the similarity model are Oronde Gadsden II, Juwan Johnson and Jake Ferguson. See where Waller sits on the trade value chart.
2026 projected stat line
- Projected PPR
- 30.6
- PPR / game
- 2.3
Darren Waller fantasy outlook
Darren Waller enters the 2026 season with CAR and ranks TE68 and #426 overall in the current Gridiron Value projection. The model projects 30.6 PPR points across 13.6 games, or 2.3 points per game, placing the expected outcome in a depth and watch-list tier. The preseason depth chart lists Darren Waller as TE1, so the opportunity forecast is tied to that current role rather than name value alone. In 2025, Darren Waller produced 88.7 PPR points in 9 games (9.9 per game), giving the projection a recent performance baseline. Projection confidence is 31%, with a 0% modeled chance of a Top-24 positional finish. The main variables are role stability, team scoring volume, and normal efficiency variance.
Week 3 projection
Darren Waller is projected for 4.1 PPR points on the road at CLE in week 3, with a likely range of 0.0 to 17.5.
Trade value
Gridiron Value prices every player from 0 to 100 within each league format. Value is up 5.0 since the previous model run (stable).
- Redraft
- 40.8
- Dynasty
- 23.6
- Superflex redraft
- 54.1
- Superflex dynasty
- 33.3
- TE premium dynasty
- 22.4
Career stats
| Season | Team | G | Tgt | Rec | Rec yds | Rec TD | Car | Rush yds | PPR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | CAR | 2 | 5 | 5 | 61 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 23.1 |
| 2025 | MIA | 9 | 34 | 24 | 283 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 88.7 |
| 2023 | NYG | 12 | 74 | 52 | 552 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 113.2 |
| 2022 | LV | 8 | 43 | 28 | 388 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 84.8 |
| 2021 | LV | 11 | 93 | 55 | 665 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 133.5 |
| 2020 | LV | 16 | 145 | 107 | 1,196 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 278.6 |
| 2019 | LV | 16 | 117 | 90 | 1,145 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 221.0 |
| 2018 | LV | 4 | 6 | 6 | 75 | 0 | 1 | 21 | 15.6 |
| 2016 | BAL | 10 | 17 | 10 | 85 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 30.5 |
| 2015 | BAL | 4 | 6 | 2 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.8 |
Tight ends ranked near Darren Waller
- Connor Heyward TE49 · 37.6 PPR
- Austin Hooper TE50 · 32.6 PPR
- David Njoku TE51 · 30.9 PPR
- Marlin Klein TE53 · 28.9 PPR
- Carsen Ryan TE54 · 27.3 PPR
- Jackson Hawes TE55 · 26.9 PPR
Carolina Panthers fantasy players
- Bryce Young QB · 246.7 PPR
- Tetairoa McMillan WR · 229.0 PPR
- Chuba Hubbard RB · 223.9 PPR
- Jalen Coker WR · 120.3 PPR
- Xavier Legette WR · 110.3 PPR
- Tommy Tremble TE · 86.7 PPR
Projections are model estimates, not recorded results. Snapshot 2026-09-24.